DX LISTENING DIGEST 00-63, May 9, 2000 edited by Glenn Hauser {Items from DXLD may be reproduced and re-reproduced only providing full credit be maintained at all stages. DXLD may not be reposted in its entirety without permission} ** COLOMBIA. 4895, Mayo 7, Colombia Estéreo, Santafé de Bogotá, 1235- 1305+, 443, NEW STATION!! musica LAm sin parar, Tambien Mayo 8 a las 0010-0105, 444, emitiendo Música Salsa, Merengue, Vallenatos, Pop sin parar, ID en la hora por OM a las 0100... ``Colombia Estéreo 93.4 HJ... Bogotá, en el centro de la Capital... CREER, Cadena Radial del Ejército``. Nota: Reportada por mi en Abril 15 como UNID a las 0115- 0123. (Yimber Gaviria, Cali, Colombia, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. I find it amusing that RHC varies its USB 11705 output. At times it is ``subdued`` 5 x 7 peak. When major story breaks (as tug o`war Elian case, raid, reunited with father, some raid fallout, etc., etc., etc.) they pump it up 15 or 20 over! Poor RAE Argentina NAm service English at 0200-0300 weekdays on 11710 doesn`t have a chance! (Bob Thomas, CT, May 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GERMANY [non]. Dear Sir, Following freq changes effective from 15th May 2000 of DW may be noted. 0100-0150 1548 (MW) English New 0100-0150 1548 (MW) Bengali Deleted From now onwards DW will not send any program sked automatically. It will be sent on demand from the listeners. Regards (Swopan Chakroborty, Calcutta, India, May 9, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** HUNGARY [non]. You are the only one who ran item on demise of Charles Taylor Coutts (pronounced Coots). No mention on DXPL. No mention on Cumbre. Since you ran a WOR Extra April 26 I checked the others. I guess they have no contributors who listen to R. Budapest? I think RB website has a tribute (Bob Thomas, CT, May 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) No, nothing found there May 8 (gh) ** ISRAEL. Just received a copy of the Reshet Bet Yom Hazikaron (Israel Memorial Day) through the evening of Yom Haatzmaut. I'm sure the English and other foreign language broadcasts will have special programming too. Of course, Reshet Bet is heard domestically in Israel, via shortwave and via the web. http://www.israelradio.org for details. Some highlights - All Times Israel Summer Time- subtract 3 hours for UTC or 7 hours for Eastern Daylight Time. (Hopefully my translation is good enough!) [...earlier info now outdated deleted] [2105 UT Tue to 0400 UT Wed:] 12:05 AM May 10th Special Independence Day program through 7 AM (with news on the hour as normally happens). During this broadcast amongst other things, there are usually callers from around the world (frequently in English, or whatever their mother tongue is)- whether it be political leaders, actors and other celebrities, or school children, to wish Israel a Happy Independence Day! (Doni Rosenzweig, May 8, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Don`t you believe the UTC clock on the Israel Radio website; from it, we extract the frequency usage for Reshet Beth in this period: 15615 throughout 15640 until 2115 13700 until 0100 9390 from 0100 11585 until 0330 11590 from 0330 (gh, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** LIBYA/USA. Independent Libyan web magazine plans web radio station A Libya-related web magazine called `Al-Sidra' [Arabic: Lotus] at the URL: http://www.al-sidra.com has been visited by BBC Monitoring's media researchers. The web site, posted in Arabic and English, says the site is "an independent political and cultural magazine published on the Internet and attending to Libyan affairs". The site says its aim is "to break Al-Qadhafi's domination over the press and mass media in Libya" and says it is "edited and published by a group of volunteers" and not affiliated to or connected with political groups. The web site also has a link to "Radio Al-Sidra" which it says is currently "under construction", the common Internet parlance for a service which has yet to be implemented. The web site has a section which shows how some opposition media groups now view the Internet. It says that with the advent and a widespread use of the Internet it is no longer the domain of only governments and powerful organizations to engage in the publishing and broadcasting of ideas and opinions. The web site says that it is no longer possible for "autocratic regimes to monopolize the mass media to spread their deluded or doctored versions of the truth" and that it is an attempt to "give the Libyans the chance to voice their opinions and views to the world and, more importantly, to other Libyans living under the current dictatorial regime". According to the web site of Network Solutions, the web site domain name al-sidra.com is registered to the Al-Sidra Group, 903 Newton Avenue, North Minneapolis, MN 55411 USA. Source: BBC Monitoring research, 8 May 00 ((c) BBCM May 9 via DXLD) ** MEXICO. 9705.01, Radio México International heard at 0323 UT Sun May 7 in English with DXperience program, so it's still running almost a year after I first heard this program. Fair reception (Walt Salmaniw, Victoria BC, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NETHERLANDS ANTILLES / BELGIUM [non]. Glenn, Re your comments about missing Bonaire frequencies on 7 May, I can confirm that one of the temporary generators was giving problems and had to be shut down while the fault was rectified, meaning that there was not enough generating capacity to run all the transmitters. Since this problem happened during our nighttime, was of short duration, and had already been fixed by the start of the next working day, we did not refer to it on the Website. 73, (Andy Sennitt, Radio Netherlands, May 9, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, Belgium relay and RN relays seemed back to normal by 2230 Monday May 8 (gh) ** NEW ZEALAND. I heard RNZI May 7 on NF 11720, surprising fair-weak at 1200. Much better earlier on, from 0706. ``Sounds Historical`` continues to be one of my favourite programs, heard on Sundays 0806- 1000. 73, (Ivan Grishin, Ont., May 8, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** NEW ZEALAND. RNZI, 11720, OK but fluttery May 9 at 1200 closing news; sign-off frequency schedule annoyingly rounded off times, like ``0700-1200``; instead of GSTQ or some other anthem, finished with jaunty ``Good night, good night`` tune to 1210* (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ROMANIA. RRI at 0200 NAm service in English has settled on 9570. There is a co-channel. Not long ago, I`d hear `em try old 9510 but they can`t win over 9505 WYFR. Sometimes at 0200, 9570 and 11940 start up late, as late as 5-8 minutes. Alarm clock must be slow. RRI is maddening! 5/3 late at 0200 on 9570, 11940. On time 5/4. Both no show 5/5. I found them on 15105. At sign-off near 0256, announced: 0400 NAm 11940 15105, Asia 15335 17745; 0200 Pacific 15380 17790; 1200 FE/Asia 11885 15105. Other station on 9570 I believe is Qatar in Arabic. 5/6 at 0400 RRI came up on poor 11940, and very good despite hash on 15105 (Bob Thomas, CT, May 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** ROMANIA. 15105.0 Radio Romania International heard May 6 at 2114 with English to Europe, into Romanian Culture program. Fair/good, but use LSB to avoid splatter from the high side. Parallel to 15180 fair/good, 11940 poor, and 11740 poor/fair. Frequencies appeared to be right on, unlike the following: To North America at 0404 in English on 15334.91 poor/fair May 8, but fair the next night May 9, 15105.05 good, but only poor/fair next night, 11939.98 fair, and only heard second night, 17745 fair, only on second night. I don't recall RRI being off frequency before. (Volodya Salmaniw, Victoria, BC, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. VOR WS English at 0100 best on 9665, very very weak on //15595. No others found/heard. 7125 in Russian until 0300, then English, both quit at 0400 (Bob Thomas, CT, May 5, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** UKRAINE. RUI English 0300 to NAm on 13590 is not always operating. It`s our only shot! No show UT May 3 or 4. It may be gone? Then again who knows? It may return soon (Bob Thomas, CT, DX LISTENING DIGEST) HFCC lists: 13590 0330-0530 29S,40NE SIR=Sirjan 500 kW 338 degr TURKI-AZ IRN IRB 13590 0400-1900 Charkov 100 290, 1900-0400 Lviv 1000 303. (Wolfgang Büschel, BC-DX) So it was Iran with Qur`an we were hearing instead at 0330, and beamed close to uswards (gh, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** UKRAINE. The Lviv-Krasne 171 longwave transmitter is back on air, noted last night at 2100 as usual with UR 1 in parallel with 207. Right now I have no any signal on 21510, suggesting the co-located shortwave unit is still silent, but this is no definite finding as I am in the skip zone here. (Kai Ludwig, Germany, May 9, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. New Frequency! 9370.0 for WTJC, noted May 9 at 1203 going from USA News to People`s Gospel Hour, after being on 9370.8 for the first year of its existence. Believe they were previously on 9370.0 briefly using lowpower backup transmitter, but this was full power. So WTJC is at last adhering to the frequency specified in its license (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Hi Glenn, It looks like AFN is still there. I heard Air Force Radio news on 6458.5 and a music program on 12689.5. This was at 03:35 Although, I must note that I didn't hear a thing on 4278.5 73 de (Walt, kb8poa... Gunstrom, May 9, DX LISTENING DIGEST) AFRTS coming in here on 6 and 12 MHz freqs, former stronger than latter at 2345 UTC Mon. rgds (Mike Cooper, GA, May 8, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yes, I heard them in the evening too, but again not around 1200 May 9 (gh, DXLD) ** U S A. A posting on rec.radio.amateur.misc reports about strife between Mr. and Mrs. Brother Scare as heard on a broadcast: http://x34.deja.com/threadmsg_md.xp?thitnum=23&AN=620173208.1&mhitnum=0&CONTEXT=957878612.1036386324 (via John Norfolk, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. radio station wgtg is adding 3 more transmitters, upgrading to 100 kw each adding 4 more antennas, installing digital encoding, perhaps subscription shortwave (pay to listen) check out the page http://www.wgtg.com (WGTG, rec.radio.shortwave May 8 via Ivan Grishin, John Norfolk, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** VIETNAM [non]. While trying to sleep in a hot & humid room last night, I listened to VoV at 0100. Started right on time for a change. Sunday is my favourite day to listen to VoV, they usually have some very enjoyable musical programs. BTW on May 7 at 0100, they started with rock music on 9695. I tuned out and retuned around 0115 to find them on the air. Then they started the Vietnamese prog 5 minutes early at 0125 (I doubled-checked another clock to make sure!) The next night (last night), everything was back to normal. 73, (Ivan Grishin, Ont., May 8, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###